Salzman joins Quintessentially Communications from US agency 2Degrees with the remit of leading and building a team stateside.

Rushdie Media founder Zafar Rushdie, son of author Salman Rushdie, has also joined as associate director to lead celebrity engagement at Quintessentially’s PR arm. He has closed his own agency, Rushdie Media.

Meanwhile Gorham, mostly recently global head of PR for the Forevermark brand owned by De Beers, and previously associate director at 3 Monkeys, joins as consultant director.

Quintessentially Communications MD Fiona Noble explained the hires were part of an effort to grow the 18-strong comms team into the footprint of the Quintessentially Group, which has more than 60 offices across the globe.

"We know that global brands want an understanding of audience behaviour that is as relevant in China as it is in Moscow or London," she said.

"We’ve run global campaigns before and have had the benefit of offices across the world. However, this is about growing our own global team, meaning we will be looking to build our capability for the future."

Praising Gorham’s mix of "expertise in luxury and robust agency skills" she said that Salzman would have a "blank sheet of paper" to work with in America in terms of developing the Quintessentially PR offer.

Declining to comment on whether Rushdie had brought over clients from Rushdie Media, which have previously been reported to include Veuve Clicquot, Random House, Dom Perignon and designer Tim Gosling, Noble said:

"Zafar has brought fantastic connectivity both in the UK and internationally, especially in New York."